But why Zoffy? A movie based on a character 18 years after said character is introduced is a tad awkward! Sure Zoffy is important, but why center it specifically around him?

He was pretty known at the time, thanks to Andre Melos.

Sorry, but I'm not familiar with that name!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andro_Melos

It was a miniseries thingy that Zoffy was in in some capacity or another. I haven't watched it and thus don't know, which really further reminds me how much I definitely should not be trying to make definitive statements on Ultra history. I don't think I even knew about Andro Melos until the Taiga voice dramas did a homage to it.

It baffles me sometimes just how many weird odds and ends this franchise has assembled over the decades. I've been actively into Ultraman for years at this point and it still feels like I'm constantly tripping over information I've never heard. I don't think I get this same sense of wonder and discovery from Rider or Sentai, you know?

I used to think the Ultra Brothers were literally all brothers, like they were all Father of Ultra's children. Picture the strange world where Zero and Taiga are cousins, and Mebius is both of their uncle.

That's kind of the world we're living in, they are second cousins, Mother of Ultra's sister is Ultraman Seven's mom :lol

Well now I want to see the Ultra-family reunion more than ever...!

I did a little bit of digging and seems like there was a LOT OF TOKUSATSU that year. There was the Kamen Rider ZX one-shot for starters, followed by Machine Man, Bioman, Shaider, some obscure ones called Dokincho! Nemurin and Pettonton, a 5-episode clip show called Ninki Kaiju Dai Parade that aired certain episodes of Tsuburaya titles under a certain theme per episode from the looks of it, and finally the two Ultra movies Ultraman Zoffy and Ultraman Story.

Which one was Machine Man? Sounds like the Marvel miniseries around the same time!

Machine Man is a standalone hero by Toei, his suit is a black, red, and yellow suit and he rides a car/jet but rides it like how Daniel from Transformers rides his exosuit in alt mode if I recall. Oh and he has a clear vinyl cape and helmet visor is positioned very low almost like Kamen Rider Birth.